The Not-So Average Emergency Physician

Emergency Medicine News, April 1, 2016

The average emergency physician is male, 47 years old, and has been practicing emergency medicine for 16 years. He makes an average of $253,235 a year and lives in the South Atlantic region of the United States, according to a survey Emergency Medicine News conducted last year. But that hardly tells the whole story.

The real tale lies somewhere among the data that show that most practicing EPs makes between $200,000 and $325,000 a year, with the largest percentage in any category (17.8%) earning more than $350,000 a year.

Surprised? So were we. Even the average salary was unexpected because other surveys have reported higher ones, but more on that later.

Our survey yielded some of the most interesting information about emergency medicine we have come across in some time (and we have been covering the specialty for 38 years). Every month through the end of the year, we will be bringing you the results, but, first, the basics. We accepted survey responses from May 13 to July 22, and promoted it in a variety of places: in our print issue, in our iPad app, and in our enews. A total of 1,229 emergency physicians responded.

We know averages don’t tell the full story, so this is just an introduction of the statistical data to come. A few last tidbits for you: The average emergency physician has been in his current position nearly 10 years, and he works in a hospital with 313 inpatient beds and 31 ED beds. He works 42 hours a week, spending 33 of those hours seeing patients and 11 doing paperwork. Ouch.

Emergency physicians experience other pain-points, as you know all too well, and we will delve into all those in the coming months.